bplabel: What is difference between "dlt" and "dlt2"density? - Veritas Net Backup

This is a discussion on bplabel: What is difference between "dlt" and "dlt2"density? - Veritas Net Backup ; Another undocumented NBU mystery:
When using Netbackup with a DLT tape drive in Solaris,
what is the difference
between the density parameters "dlt" and "dlt2" in the
bplabel command?
Which density parameter is correct? Assume Solaris 2.7
and a DLT ...

bplabel: What is difference between "dlt" and "dlt2"density?

Another undocumented NBU mystery:

When using Netbackup with a DLT tape drive in Solaris,
what is the difference
between the density parameters "dlt" and "dlt2" in the
bplabel command?
Which density parameter is correct? Assume Solaris 2.7
and a DLT tape
device "/dev/rmt/0ubn".

bplabel -ev 000000 -d dlt
vs
bplabel -ev 000000 -d dlt2

TIA,

-wsanders

Re: bplabel: What is difference between "dlt" and "dlt2" density?

The tape cartridge definition has to the drive definition, if the
drive type is set to DLT3 in Media and Device Manager, then the tapes
associated with that drive must also be set to DLT3. This is to issue that
the proper style, not density of tape is used with the proper drive. The
DLT, DLT2, DLT3 do not set the density of the tape. They are used to set
the maximum throughtput of the drive itself.

DLT, DLT2, DLT3 defintions are for if your robot has mixed drive types
(DLT4000 and DLT7000). This allows you manage the tape usage for each drive.
If you had DLT4000 defined as DLT and a DLT7000 defined as DLT2, you could
force NetBackup to use the DLT IV cartridges only in the DLT7000 by setting
the DLT IV cartridges to a type of DLT2. The DLT4000 could only use tapes
defined as DLT.